Neoptolemus was the son of the heroAchilles and the princess Deidamia in Greek mythology. Achilles' mother, the goddess Thetis, had foreseen that her son would die in a great war; afraid for him, she took him to the court of King Lycomedes at the island of Scyros, and disguised him as a woman. While there, Achilles had an affair with the princess Deidamia; from this union, Neoptolemus was born.

Helenus, a Trojan seer, was captured by the Greeks and was forced to tell them that Troy would fall if the Greeks acquired the arrows of Heracles and the Palladium, and if they also convinced Neoptolemus to join the war. After acquiring the two artifacts, the Greeks sent Odysseus to get the young Neoptolemus, who eventually joined the war. During the Trojan War, Neoptolemus turned out to be a brutal person, who killed Priam, Eurypylus, Polites and Astyanax, among others; he also made Andromache his concubine. After the end of the war, Neoptolemus took Andromache and Helenus and went to Epirus, where he became the king. With Andromache, Neoptolemus had a son, Molossus.

There are two versions of Neoptolemus' death. One has it that he attempted to take Hermione from Orestes; the latter killed him. The other says that he denounced the god Apollo because it was him that had killed his father; and Apollo eventually killed Neoptolemus as well.